A simple alteration such as moving the clock forward or backward one hour, in accordance with daylight savings time, can interrupt the rhythmic habituation of daily living. Such minor tinkering has greater impact than we care to concede, and to which we fail to respond appropriately.

Man enjoys the pinnacle of technological snobbery; daily, he lives “as if”; whether lost in the insular privacy of his own thoughts, or deliberately in the parallel universes created through video escapism, virtual universes of linguistic scaffolds high atop the animal kingdom, the ignoring and averting of biological rhythms is to the detriment of health, whether mental or physical.

One can get away with dismissing a singular incident of feeling out of coordination because of a long day, a tiring embattlement with work, or a protracted convalescence from unexpected turmoil. But medical conditions which are progressive in nature, chronic in defying avoidance, and deteriorating to a degree which cannot be denied, are all greater exponential forces beyond mere rhythmic interruptions of daily routine. Some things, we can ignore; others, we do so at the cost of paying a greater price by procrastination.

Federal Disability Retirement benefits are available for the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal worker who decides, after long and quiet deliberation, that an impasse has occurred between one’s health and one’s physical or cognitive requirements of the positional duties required by the Federal or Postal job. Rhythmic interruptions are one category; medical conditions which have an interceding impact upon the ability to perform the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, quite another.

Fighting the good fight does not mean that one should expend to the end of time at the cost of one’s health. When the Federal or Postal employee recognizes that the fictional fantasy of being at the pinnacle of the animal world does not include being exempted from the biological reality of injury and disease, and that rhythmic interruptions resulting from a health issue need to be attended to, then the benefit of Federal Disability Retirement will be appreciated, as it is an employment benefit available to all Federal and Postal employees who have the minimum years of creditable service with the Federal Government.

One can lie to one’s self only for so long; and as the species of Man can survive with the blanket of surreal condiments by asserting exemption from biological entrapment, so the Federal and Postal employee who suffers from a medical condition such that the medical condition prevents one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, can endure pain and rhythmic interruptions only for so long.

For some, transitions constitute mere alterations with minimal reverberations; but for most, change from routine is itself a traumatic event worth resisting even at the expense of one’s own good, one’s advantage, one’s self-interest. Stability and the status quo represent a daily habituation of life where symbolism of sameness parallels security and safety.

It may be the routine itself; and while complaints about work may abound, the complaining itself engulfs a camaraderie of a community of collectivism. But for the injured Federal employee and the U.S. Postal worker who begins to suffer from a condition, such that the progressively deteriorating nature of the injury or disability begins to prevent the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, it is often the forced imposition and lack of choice in the matter, which exponentially magnifies the hardship of acceptance.

Man lives by routine of daily monotony. Economic requirements imposing a time to get up, to groom oneself, perform the toil of the day, and then to come home exhausted but satisfied that some contribution to society was made, some significance in the greater cosmos of teleological void was marked in an unnamed and unrevealed book of acknowledgments; to interrupt such a routine after years and decades of fighting for an obscure cause, is a shock of life.

To choose to change is one thing; to have the choice made for you, quite another. And of course, acceptance of an altered life can take some time, but time is never on the side of the Federal or Postal worker who must find an alternate source of income.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is never an easy venture to undertake. Alone, it is a lonely meandering within a confusing morass of administrative conundrums; with some guidance, it is merely a directed disruption of a disquieted life. But necessity mandated upon the Federal and Postal work often reveals an inner strength which somehow manifests itself in the sea of change, and for the Federal and Postal worker who must file for Disability Retirement from the OPM because of the imposition of a medical condition, life’s inevitable changes must be accepted in this world of shifting sands, as time marches on whether the invisible chains of stability keep secure the earthquakes felt, or yet to be experienced.

Seven False Myths about OPM Disability Retirement

1) I have to be totally disabled to get Postal or Federal disability retirement.
False: You are eligible for disability retirement so long as you are unable to perform one or more of the essential elements of your job. Thus, it is a much lower standard of disability.

2) My injury or illness has to be job-related.
False: You can get disability even if your condition is not work related. If your medical condition impacts your ability to perform any of the core elements of your job, you are eligible, regardless of how or where your condition occurred.

3) I have to quit my federal job first to get disability.
False: In most cases, you can apply while continuing to work at your present job, to the extent you are able.

4) I can't get disability if I suffer from a mental or nervous condition.
False: If your condition affects your job performance, you can still qualify. Psychiatric conditions are treated no differently from physical conditions.

5) Disability retirement is approved by DOL Workers Comp.
False: It's the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) the federal agency that administers and approves disability for employees at the US Postal Service or other federal agencies.

6) I can wait for OPM disability retirement for many years after separation.
False: You only have one year from the date of separation from service - otherwise, you lose your right forever.

7) If I get disability retirement, I won't be able to apply for Scheduled Award (SA).
False: You can get a Scheduled Award under the rules of OWCP even after you get approved for OPM disability retirement.